In twenty-five years, sustainable development has not delivered the expected outcomes in terms of structural and institutional changes as well as scientific changes. Regarding scientific changes, since the first introduction of the concept of sustainable development by the Brundtland commission in 1987, new scientific fields of interdisciplinary reasearch in social sciences have emerged producing new conceptual tools, proposing new methodologies and asserting certain ethical principles. From the one hand, the thesis is interested in the field of Human Development which is structured around the work of Amartya Sen (the Capability Approach) and Manfred Max-Neef (the Fundamental Needs approach). On the other hand, the thesis is interested in the field of Ecological Economics from which emerges a strong conception of sustainability as well as the concepts of ecosystem functions and services. The thesis aims to establish a link between these two fields of research to shift from sustainable development, a relatively ambiguous concept, to responsible human development clearly rooted in strong sustainability and social justice. This articulation is carried out in a transdisciplinary perspective. In the first place, this articulation enables to provide a sound conceptual framework that could help to strengthen the epistemology of geography for studying Nature-Society interactions. In addition, this articulation could help to promote a responsible land planning. This new conceptual framework is tested in two peri-urban biosphere reserves in France (Biosphere Reserve Fontainebleau -Gâtinais ) and Chile (Biosphere Reserve La Campana - Peñuelas).
